Sprint Forges Deal to Buy Assets From U.S. Cellular

By

Thomas Gryta

Updated Nov. 7, 2012 5:28 p.m. ET

Sprint Nextel Corp. on Wednesday agreed to purchase customers and airwave licenses in the Midwest from U.S. Cellular Corp. for $480 million, in Sprint's first transaction since it received a multibillion-dollar cash infusion from Softbank Corp. as part of the Japanese company's deal to take over the third-largest U.S. wireless carrier.

The deal with U.S. Cellular, considered small in the telecommunications space, is the latest sign...